Phylogenetic analysis of aedes albopictus isolated from Taman Puncak Kinrara, Selangor based on the nadh dehydrogenase 5 subunit (ND5) gene / Nurul Amalina Ahmad Daud

Ae. albopictus is a vector that can transmit a variety of viruses such as dengue (DENV), chikungunya (CHIKV) and zika virus (ZIKV). In Malaysia, number of dengue cases reported has increased on a yearly basis. Vector control methods can be enhanced through the understanding of the genetic structure and diversity of the Ae. albopictus population. In particular, the ND5 gene is a protein-coding gene that has been widely used in intraspecific evolutionary studies of anopheline mosquitoes and Ae. albopictus, but no study has reported its use in the local settings, especially in Selangor, Malaysia. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify the genetic variation and unravel the phylogenetic distribution of Ae. albopictus isolated at Taman Puncak Kinrara (TPK), Selangor. The eggs of Aedes mosquitoes were collected using standardized ovitraps and reared until adulthood in the insectarium.Ten individual adult females of Ae. albopictus were morphologically identified use pictorial keys. DNA was extracted and quantified. The amplified ND5 regions of extracted DNA (450bp) were sequenced and subjected to BLAST revealing 99% of similarities compared to the references ND5 regions. The polymorphic sites and phylogenetic distribution of the local Ae. albopictus were determined using MEGA6 and MrBayes v3.2.4 based on the aligned sequences derived from ClustalX v2.1. Our findings revealed that Ae. albopictus isolated from TPK have low genetic variation and are closely related to each other. Even though TPK 3 and 4 have polymorphic sites and longer branch, they still have close relationship with other samples and countries such as USA, Vietnam, Cambodia, Madagascar, France, Reunion, Lebanon and Thailand as they are grouped together in group 2. This indicates that Ae. albopictus in TPK area has low variation which could be due to several factors such as repetitive use of insecticides, choice of marker, effects of Wolbachia infestations and the environmental adaptability trait of Ae. albopictus. The use of other markers and studies on Wolbachia are warranted to substantiate the findings.